No answers here, just pondering. I grew up believing in life after death, and
never really questioned it except in my rebellious teen years (when I never
truly gave it much thought.) The night my dad died, I was in boot camp, and
had a vision of him as full of clarity as I ever had outside of some recurring
dreams I used to have. When I was called to the Red Cross in the morning
so they could give me the bad news, I never even considered it could be him
though. All the way I was running through in my mind which of my siblings
would have had an accident. I was in shock at the news. My sisters and
brother also had the vision, however, so I figured it was him saying goodbye
to us. I've never really doubted that, either.
But it's not proof of life after death. Noone has ever had any kind of proof of
that, at least that they've been able to share as more than personal experience.
Some people who were brought back talk about seeing the light, or tunnel, or
relatives, etc. But all these can also be explained by the process of the brain
going down. Which leads me to wonder: when did we (humans) start believing
in life after death anyway? Did it start after we became aware of our loss at
loved ones dying? Did we need to be consoled, or to console others? It appears
that virtually every civilization believes in the spirit living on in some form or
other. And yet, why? Noone can prove it (and not for a lack of trying either.)
I think it must be the one belief we all share that actually goes back to our
roots. If we really did have an Adam and Eve type beginning, starting from
a common ancestor, it must have started with them. At some point in our
youth of humanity we gained an awareness, a knowledge, that the other
animals don't share. We don't know if that was an event or an evolution,
but it seems to me the idea of life after death must have started back then.
It could be that a fear of death (after becoming aware of it) caused us to believe
this way, out of denial. Or it could have been actual knowledge, passed on by
someone overseeing our evolution.
And so, as I get older, I ponder this more and more. I know what I believe.
I believe the Adam and Eve story is a story about our beginnings with
knowledge and understanding and awareness. I don't believe Eve ate an
apple and suddenly gained knowledge, but it's a symbol for whatever did
happen. I believe it was an event, and humanity evolved from it. I believe
we have an event in our future as well, that will greatly revolutionize our
understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe. But will those
who have passed on already still be around? I know what the Bible teaches
about this, but the witnesses to Jesus death and ressurection lived 2000
years ago, and what we know about them was passed on by people several
generations later. So it's faith, not knowledge. Things get exaggerated
about all the great people in history, so while I accept all Jesus teachings,
I question the stories, or at least don't accept them as verbatum facts.
I have no point to make here. It's just something I think about and wanted
to put down on paper (so to speak). Think on this, though: If we as
humanity suddenly DID have proof of our life after death, and DID have
understanding of what it really is, wouldn't that change us? Perhaps that
will happen someday.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
King James?
When I was still a babe in the Lord, my preacher was emphatic that the
King James version was the ONLY reliable English translation of the Bible.
I came to believe that the reason this was pushed was because it was so
totally unreadable by most people that preachers were able to hide behind
it and teach whatever they wanted by using excerpts, or verses, totally out
of context. It was very difficult for most English speaking people (especially
those without a higher education) to read this with any flow. Kind of like
reading Shakespeare. I started reading the NIV, and wore it out.
My wife loves the King James. She says the NIV translation is incorrect
in too many critical places, and she's probably right more often than not.
I maintain that any translation you can read will be OK. If you get to the
point that you want to know a more precise meaning to something, go ahead
and pull out a Schofield or King James or New American Standard and see
what they say for a translation. We have the Greek and Hebrew Lexicons,
that give exact translations for the original words, but it isn't necessary to
get the gist of what's being said.
There are many other books out there that weren't included in the Bible.
The Catholic version has several extra books, that were excluded in our
Bible because the original language wasn't Greek or Hebrew. Really though,
you can pick up a Mormon Bible and still find God's message in it. I've had
God speak to me when I've been reading fictional books. There's a series
of novels about a Navaho cop that speaks quite a bit about Navaho beliefs.
There's a lot of great stuff in there. Many of the so called secret societies
such as Dan Brown wrote about in his novels actually had glimpses of truth
that drove them underground to avoid persectution from the church.
God is Spirit. God is Love. God is Light. He lives in the hearts and minds
of many people. He doesn't just belong to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Eastern
Peoples or any one group. We are all His. And we can all learn from each
other. The idea of accepting the Yang side is contrary to the way we teach
our religion in this country, but it's not contrary to the teaching of the Bible.
We are who we are, and we need to learn to love ourselves as well. That
begins when we realize that God loves us. Not, loves us if we straighten
our lives out. Not, loves us if we walk the straight and narrow. For those
for whom that matters, they can become one with Him. Too bad it only
really matters to a few of us.
King James version was the ONLY reliable English translation of the Bible.
I came to believe that the reason this was pushed was because it was so
totally unreadable by most people that preachers were able to hide behind
it and teach whatever they wanted by using excerpts, or verses, totally out
of context. It was very difficult for most English speaking people (especially
those without a higher education) to read this with any flow. Kind of like
reading Shakespeare. I started reading the NIV, and wore it out.
My wife loves the King James. She says the NIV translation is incorrect
in too many critical places, and she's probably right more often than not.
I maintain that any translation you can read will be OK. If you get to the
point that you want to know a more precise meaning to something, go ahead
and pull out a Schofield or King James or New American Standard and see
what they say for a translation. We have the Greek and Hebrew Lexicons,
that give exact translations for the original words, but it isn't necessary to
get the gist of what's being said.
There are many other books out there that weren't included in the Bible.
The Catholic version has several extra books, that were excluded in our
Bible because the original language wasn't Greek or Hebrew. Really though,
you can pick up a Mormon Bible and still find God's message in it. I've had
God speak to me when I've been reading fictional books. There's a series
of novels about a Navaho cop that speaks quite a bit about Navaho beliefs.
There's a lot of great stuff in there. Many of the so called secret societies
such as Dan Brown wrote about in his novels actually had glimpses of truth
that drove them underground to avoid persectution from the church.
God is Spirit. God is Love. God is Light. He lives in the hearts and minds
of many people. He doesn't just belong to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Eastern
Peoples or any one group. We are all His. And we can all learn from each
other. The idea of accepting the Yang side is contrary to the way we teach
our religion in this country, but it's not contrary to the teaching of the Bible.
We are who we are, and we need to learn to love ourselves as well. That
begins when we realize that God loves us. Not, loves us if we straighten
our lives out. Not, loves us if we walk the straight and narrow. For those
for whom that matters, they can become one with Him. Too bad it only
really matters to a few of us.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
God's Word.
Everything I believe is grounded in the Bible. There was a time when I could quote scripture with the best of them, and wouldn't read anything else. I still try to live my life by the principles I learned, even though I wouldn't necessarily agree anymore. (Like tattoos. Don't have them, don't know why anymore. I don't wear jewelry. Stupid things like that.) I no longer necessarily look at the bible as the sole guideline of my life, even though I'm guided by my grounding in it. If that makes sense.
When I read the Public Letters to the Editors in the paper, I get so sick of people arguing there point with their Bible as their authority. You can be on either side of almost any issue and argue your point from the Bible. Someone thinks their point of view is backed up by God if their interpretation of the Bible backs them up. Too bad most people get their interpretation from
someone else, who gets it from someone else, etc. etc. etc. I read today that one of the Reformed Churches has voted a new statement of faith, which is to be accepted by everyone in their church.
Never mind the politics involved (in accepting gays or not and how strong etc), it's a statement of faith put out by men. Nothing to do with God or the Bible, but dictating beliefs nonetheless. We've literally had centuries of this sort of thing. And yet it's "God's will". Right. So excuse me
for not jumping to your point of view just because you think the Bible backs you up. I've learned enough of what the bible has to teach to know that the teachers don't have a clue, but not enough to consider myself a teacher.
For instance. I might say that the bible is God's Word. But the way you might interpret that is that God literally dictated what was written. NO no no. The bible is God's word in the same way that what I'm writing now is God's word, (sort of). Someone learned from God and wrote about what they learned, in the context of what they knew. I believe I learned a few things from God myself. For instance, the timing of the rapture, whatever that ends up being, isn't in the middle of the tribulation, as is taught by most of the Tribulation Warning preachers. What makes them think they should be spared the battle is beyond me, but that's another discussion.
God has made himself manifest in many people in our societies. God is Love. God is Light. It's not too hard when you get to know God, to spot Him in others. And if he is in someone, that someone might just have something to teach you. And it would be considered God's Word. If you consider the Bible to be God's word, anyway.
When I read the Public Letters to the Editors in the paper, I get so sick of people arguing there point with their Bible as their authority. You can be on either side of almost any issue and argue your point from the Bible. Someone thinks their point of view is backed up by God if their interpretation of the Bible backs them up. Too bad most people get their interpretation from
someone else, who gets it from someone else, etc. etc. etc. I read today that one of the Reformed Churches has voted a new statement of faith, which is to be accepted by everyone in their church.
Never mind the politics involved (in accepting gays or not and how strong etc), it's a statement of faith put out by men. Nothing to do with God or the Bible, but dictating beliefs nonetheless. We've literally had centuries of this sort of thing. And yet it's "God's will". Right. So excuse me
for not jumping to your point of view just because you think the Bible backs you up. I've learned enough of what the bible has to teach to know that the teachers don't have a clue, but not enough to consider myself a teacher.
For instance. I might say that the bible is God's Word. But the way you might interpret that is that God literally dictated what was written. NO no no. The bible is God's word in the same way that what I'm writing now is God's word, (sort of). Someone learned from God and wrote about what they learned, in the context of what they knew. I believe I learned a few things from God myself. For instance, the timing of the rapture, whatever that ends up being, isn't in the middle of the tribulation, as is taught by most of the Tribulation Warning preachers. What makes them think they should be spared the battle is beyond me, but that's another discussion.
God has made himself manifest in many people in our societies. God is Love. God is Light. It's not too hard when you get to know God, to spot Him in others. And if he is in someone, that someone might just have something to teach you. And it would be considered God's Word. If you consider the Bible to be God's word, anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)